Entertainment

Tom Cruise is bringing the Olympics to Los Angeles in Hollywood style!

During the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the “Mission Impossible” star was seen rappelling down from the roof of Stade de France where the ceremony is being held on Sunday. The stunt took place after H.E.R. played the U.S. national anthem.

After he descended to the floor on a rope, the actor shook everyone’s hands as he walked through the athletes in attendance at the stadium before rushing to the stage.

While on stage during the changeover ceremony, Cruise took the Olympic flag from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and gymnastics legend Simone Biles who appeared to be wearing a medical boot on her left leg.

Bass and Biles were called on stage earlier to represent the passing of the torch from the Paris Games to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Cruise pinned the flag onto his motorcycle before riding it into the streets of Paris. He was next seen getting onto a plane before the camera panned to a view of the city of Los Angeles.

Towards the end of the big reveal, Cruise was later seen standing in front of the iconic Hollywood sign that was redesigned with the five Olympic rings.

Michael Johnson was then assigned the flag as he ran through the city, before the camera arrived at a beach where the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre took over for a mini concert.

Among songs performed include “Can’t Stop,” “Birds of a Feather,” and “Drop It Like It’s Hot.”

Sunday marked the end of 2024 Paris Olympics where Team USA closed out the event winning the most medals, with 126 in total.

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A stage adaptation of the animated phenomenon Frozen is coming to Disney+, and the acclaimed Hugh Jackman musical film The Greatest Showman is Broadway bound, Disney Theatrical Group announced as part of the annual fan expo D23.

The Greatest Showman starred Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum, and became a cultural phenomenon upon its release in 2017. Alongside Jackman, the star-studded cast included Zac Efron as Barnum’s business partner Phillip Carlyle, and Zendaya as the talented trapeze artist Anne Wheeler.

The movie’s musical numbers, including hits like “This Is Me” and “The Greatest Show,” quickly resonated with viewers, helping the movie garner a devoted fan base and significant acclaim. The story of Barnum’s rise from humble beginnings to creating the “Greatest Show on Earth” was celebrated for its message of inclusivity, perseverance and the power of imagination.

Just as the streaming service did with the everything-winning musical Hamilton, the stage version of Frozen will be headed to Disney+ in 2025.

At D23, fans were treated to a glimpse of what’s to come, including a performance of “Let It Go” by Samantha Barks, who currently stars as Elsa in the London production.

The Frozen musical first opened in London’s West End in 2021 after a successful run on Broadway and a North American tour.

It was recorded earlier this year at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, where Barks stars alongside Laura Dawkes as Anna and Jammy Kasongo as Kristoff.

The show will play its final performance on Sept. 8.

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The first theatrical spin-off from The Mandalorian will be the first Star Wars movie in theaters since 2019’s divisive Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

At the annual D23 expo, Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau — currently in theaters in Deadpool & Wolverine — announced he will be directing the film based on his Emmy-winning Star Wars small-screen effort.

Producing will be his partner on the project, Dave Filoni, and the pair teased a first look of the film, which Favreau called an “all-new adventure following these two characters.”

Pedro Pascal plays the titular gunslinger, aka Din Djarin, who in the course of the three seasons of The Mandalorian, becomes the protector of Grogu, the Force sensitive being formerly known as Baby Yoda.

Variety reports Sigourney Weaver was in talks to star in the film, but nothing is official from Lucasfilm, and no other casting news was teased.

The Mandalorian and Grogu will fly into theaters May 22, 2026.

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While Marvel Studios stormed San Diego Comic Con late last month, the Disney-owned property came loaded to the company’s D23 expo this weekend.

Ryan Reynolds opened the presentation with a video message thanking fans for making Deadpool & Wolverine such a huge hit, commenting “overwhelmed doesn’t even begin to describe” how he feels.

With that, he introduced “the original Marvel Jesus,” studio head Kevin Feige.

Feige teased a series of new big-and-small-screen projects. On the small screen, there’s the Disney+-bound WandaVision spin-off Agatha All Along, Ironheart, spawned from the blockbuster film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the anticipated Daredevil: Born Again, which reunites Charlie Cox as the blind vigilante and the cast of the acclaimed Netflix series Daredevil.

The Agatha All Along cast, including Kathryn Hahn, Patti LuPone and Aubrey Plaza talked up the series debuting September 18 and performed the dark magic-inspiring song “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road.”

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler teased footage and introduced the cast of 2025’s Ironheart, which centers on Dominique Thorne‘s Wakanda Forever supergenius Riri Williams.

Cox, and co-star Vincent D’Onofrio — reprising as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin — joined their other co-stars including Jon Bernthal reprising as Frank Castle/The Punisher, for a peek at Daredevil: Born Again. The series had been reworked from a more PG-13 vibe to hew closer to the R-rated Netflix Daredevil and Punisher shows — and although it debuts in March of 2025, production has begun on season 2.

As for movies, there were new peeks at the forthcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Captain America: Brave New World, both debuting in theaters in 2025.

Fantastic Four didn’t have any new footage that wasn’t already teased at Comic-Con, but there was a video of cast members Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Pedro Pascal, and Joseph Quinn palling around on set.

Anthony Mackie stopped by to talk about Brave New World and show off a sneak peek that gave fans a better look at Harrison Ford raging out as Red Hulk.

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At D23, Disney’s annual fan expo, co-star Jude Law was on hand Friday to introduce the trailer for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, the latest Disney+ series set in that galaxy far, far away. 

Law stars as the Force sensitive Jod Na Nawood in a sort of Star Wars meets The Goonies mash-up featuring a cast of kids — and one young alien — looking for adventure. 

According to an official synopsis, the show “follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy.”

“Finding their way home — and meeting unlikely allies and enemies — will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined,” the synopsis continues.

With Jude Law leading the cast, the show features Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter and Robert Timothy Smith as the four children mentioned in the synopsis.

Tunde Adebimpe, Kerry Condon and Nick Frost also star, the latter voicing the beat-up, reprogrammed pirate droid SM-33.

At the 2023 Star Wars Celebration in London, Law said onstage that there were many “pinch-me moments” for him as he made his Star Wars debut, calling it an “extraordinary” experience.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew premieres on Disney+ on Dec. 3.

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A new trailer for Mufasa: The Lion King arrived Friday.

Disney shared the new look at the highly anticipated Barry Jenkins-directed film, a prequel to The Lion King, at D23, the company’s annual fan expo.

Aaron Pierre voices Mufasa in the new film. James Earl Jones voiced Mufasa in previous Lion King movies.

Other new cast members include Kelvin Harrison Jr., who voices Taka (aka Scar), and Anika Noni Rose, who voices Mufasa’s mother Afia, among others.

John Kani, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Donald Glover and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter are reprising their roles from the 2019 live-action Lion King remake as Rafiki, Pumbaa, Timon, Simba and Nala, respectively.

Notably, the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer’s eldest child, daughter Blue Ivy Carter, is voicing Kiara, Simba and Nala’s daughter.

“The journey of this film is kind of understanding how someone can build a family out of these very disparate parts,” Jenkins told GMA in April.

The Moonlight director added that it’s also about “how people who may be alone can find strength by coming together.”

Mufasa: The Lion King is set to release in theaters on Dec. 20.

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The title of the highly anticipated Freaky Friday sequel has been announced.

At D23 in Anaheim, California, on Friday, Disney revealed that it will be called Freakier Friday.

In an interview with Good Morning America at D23, the film’s two main stars, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, said “everything” about the sequel is “freakier.”

“The switches, the music, comedy,” Lohan said.

“The emotion,” Curtis added. “You now have a grandparent and a grandchild. We can’t tell you much, but Lindsay has her own 15-year-old in the movie, which makes me, then, the grandma. So there’s just more emotion.”

“Freakier Friday is a love letter to mommies,” Curtis said. “It’s a love letter to mommies and daughters and families. This is a love letter to them to just being mothers and the beauty of it all.”

The stars added that Anna’s (Lohan) band, Pink Slip, is returning, as well as their co-stars from the first film.

“It’s the original group, just freakier,” Curtis said.

In June, it was announced that Freaky Friday was getting a sequel and that filming had officially begun. A photo of Curtis and Lohan on set was also shared with the announcement.

Also returning to the sequel are Chad Michael Murray, Mark Harmon, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Haley Hudson, Lucille Soong, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Rosalind Chao.

Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, and Manny Jacinto will also star in the film.

Freakier Friday arrives in theaters in 2025.

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Friday marked the opening of D23, the annual fan expo for The Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC News. From the drop, the fan fest made headlines. 

Here are just some of Friday’s big reveals: 

• A new trailer was revealed for Moana 2, starring the voices of Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson. It opens November 27. 
   
• The title of the third installment of the global blockbuster Avatar franchise was revealed to be Avatar: Fire and Ash. Shot alongside the smash 2022 sequel The Way of Water, it’s due in theaters December 19, 2025.
   
• Loki season 2 veteran and Everything Everywhere All at Once Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan will lend his voice to a snake named Gary in the sequel to 2016’s billion-plus grossing Zootopia. Original cast members Ginnifer Goodwin, who was on hand at the Anaheim event, will be back as bunny cop Judy Hopps, along with her fox partner Nick Wilde, voiced again by Jason Bateman, when the movie hits theaters Nov. 26, 2025.
   
• Disney/Pixar revealed the franchise’s original director — and Ratatouille Oscar winner — Brad Bird will be back for Incredibles 3, due in theaters in the spring of 2026. Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter return, respectively, as Bob Parr and wife Helen/aka Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl; Sarah Vowell reprises Violet, while Dash will be voiced by Huck Milner for the threequel. Samuel L. Jackson will reprise as Lucius Best/Frozone, and Bird will be back as supersuit designer Edna Mode.
   
• Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis announced the sequel to their beloved hit Freaky Friday will be called Freakier Friday. That hits theaters in 2025.
   

• Disney released the first trailer for the upcoming Snow White live-action remake starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. It hits theaters on March 21, 2025.

  
  
  

   

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The Bikeriders, starring Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon and Jodie Comer, is now streaming on Peacock.

Set initially in 1965, and based on Danny Lyon‘s famous 1968 photo book about motorcycle enthusiasts, Jeff Nichols‘ well-received movie has Butler playing Benny, a new recruit to the Vandals motorcycle club, started in Illinois by Hardy’s Johnny.

Comer plays Kathy, who falls fast for Benny, as recalled to a young writer named Danny, played by Mike Faist, a character who is likely a nod to the book’s author.

As the gang grows nationwide over the years, it begins to slip out of Johnny’s control and the Vandals name becomes synonymous with crime, leaving him on a collision course with the monster he built. Meanwhile, Benny must choose between his relationship with Kathy and the club that gave him a family.

The Walking Dead‘s Norman Reedus — a real-life bike enthusiast — also stars and is nearly unrecognizable as Funny Sonny, one of the Vandals’ West Coast recruits, who seeks out the founders with an agenda of his own.

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Of all the surprise cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine, one that was supposed to happen didn’t: screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick say Robert Downey Jr. turned the movie down.

A scene in the beginning of the movie has Ryan Reynolds‘ Wade Wilson interviewing to see if his alter ego Deadpool could join The Avengers.

To his disappointment, however, instead of meeting “the man” — aka Tony Stark aka Downey — Wade pleads his case to Jon Favreau‘s Happy Hogan, Stark’s longtime friend.

“He doesn’t do this kinda thing anymore,” Happy says. “Cameos?” Wade asks, nudging the fourth wall.

“Interviews,” Happy replies.

Reese tells IndieWire, “Ryan Reynolds wrote the scene with both of them, so in the hopes we could get Downey. But he also wanted Favreau, because they’re a great combo.”

Wenick adds, “[W]e said, ‘No one says no to Ryan Reynolds,'” but ultimately, Downey did.

Fast-forward to now, and we know what Reese, Wernick and Reynolds didn’t at the time: Downey was returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but as Doctor Doom, not Tony Stark.

“It just didn’t make sense” for him to play Stark before the villain, Reese says.

The scene with only Favreau and Reynolds worked well, the writers agreed, as did their co-writer Reynolds, who recently called the Iron Man director “one of the greats.”

Ryan enthused, “[W]orking with Jon — who’s one of the original creatives who built an empire — was somehow BETTER than sitting with one of my heroes.”

Wernick said they also brainstormed that ALL of the Avengers would be there to reject Wade, “and then he dressed all the Avengers down in a way only Deadpool could do,” but said they never actually wrote the scene.

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